The Last One Who Remembers

'In a moment I know that life in stories will always be more convincing, more perfect, than actual life. It could not be otherwise. Life is unfinished and must always dissatisfy. It may be infinite in its wonder and despair, but its nature is rough because it is always in the making. Memory and story-telling perfect living.' Creating stories from her own experience, Patti Miller tells real and fictional narratives about her great-aunts, weaving imaginary tales about actual lives, and exlporing the possibilities in the silence under the stream of stories. The Last One Who Remembers traverses the boundaries of fiction, personal history and essay. Miller explores the stories which shape our lives; shifting from the overheard murmurings of family, through tales of childhood landscape and religion, to fantasies of sex and the illusory certainties of intellectual knowledge. She looks at how these stories create our sense of self and form our picture of the world. Patti Miller is the author of Writing Your Life, and has been teaching writing classes in the Blue Mountains and Sydney for many years.